Down and Dirty at Tough Mudder Houston 2013

Kristin, Alex (Dad), Becky, Kelsey (sister), Myself, Sheri
from left to right. Cajun Chaos 3.0 was the team name

What is tough mudder? That is the exact question that I had to ask myself a week before the event. My sister has been hyping up this event for several months now, and I wanted to see what the big deal was. She even was able to make my dad do the event with her. As the final days approached to the event I started to dig around and find some information and what exactly tough mudder is. A few google searches later I came to the conclusion that tough mudder is a basically a 12 mile course that you can do solo or with teams. Where in between the start and finish line there are many obstacles that would need to be circumnavigated as well as lots of mud to sludge through.

Two Days before the event I finally told my dad that I wanted to do it. He gave me a smile of assurance “Just be at the house at 10am Saturday,” he told me.

In the back of my head I wanted to do this as a way to prove to my sister that even though I sit on my ass and pedal as my primary form of exercise, I can get through an obstacle course with the best of them. Luckily since the off-season I have been at the recreation center on campus hitting the rock wall about three times a week. I knew I was going to be good to go.

I woke up Saturday and started to head home to prepare for tough mudder. I was told to only wear shoes that I will not mind discarding after the event. I grabbed my dad’s old sneakers and put them on. As the 10 am time line started to come closer, the other members of the team started to show up. The final team roster would consist of six of us. Including my Dad, Kelsey, Becky (the one that started all of this madness), Kristin, Sheri, and myself.

Pincus faction

The drive to the course was not to bad. Once we got there and signed up we started to pin number. Pinning numbers is a task I hold close to my heart. A task that I personally think I have perfected from several years of two numbers on a tight cycling jersey. Once I pinned myself we started to walk to where staging was. It was pretty warm outside, it did not help that we all had to wait on some black tarmac under the sun as we got our pre race instructions and advice. The energy at the start ling was high, and everyone was ready to rip out of the start gates.

When they finally let us lose, the first task was a straight three quarters mile run on a car race track. As I settled into a light jog (my first jog since last off season) I could feel my body slowly getting used to running. I looked around to see how everyone else was doing. Much to my surprise there where a lot of people already out of breathe and breathing hard. Many of my teammates were also breathing fairly hard. Once we reached the 200-meter point of the 12-mile race. I looked at my dad and we both let out a smile. The two of us being cyclists meant that we could probably jog a little bit longer then most. As we past the first mile point we were down to a walk for the sake of keeping the team together. I did not want to be walking this early in the race because of the fact that it could end up being a four or more hour day if we go too slowly in between the first obstacles. But there was I nothing you can do other then find a pace that everyone can go at. Unlike cycling which you can just have someone draft behind, this event would require everyone working together to get over walls, through ditches, and over barriers as we slowly get closer to the finish. As we finally made it off of the tarmac and onto the grass the mud quickly started to build up on the bottom of everyone’s shoes. Mud from having to jump over mud filled ditches. As I was slowly leaping over these ditches I looked down at my shoe and noticed that one of the soles was starting to come unglued. We started to get to our first obstacles, which included jumping over a few short walls as well as forced to trudge through Ice-cold water.

Shortly after the Ice called water we made it to what I would consider the first real obstacle on course, “The Berlin Wall”. From a distance it looked like just a very tall wall that you would need to find a way to get over. As I got closer to the wall I was able to notice a small 2x4 about 4 feet above the ground nailed to the wall. It jetted out about 2 inches, just enough to get a foot on it. I looked at the wall and noticed it was very similar to other walls that I have had to get over in my lifetime. As my team inspected the wall farther, I walked back to add to my running start. With one leap I was able to get one leg on the 2x4 and carry my momentum upward. As I pushed off my planted leg I reached up and was able to grab the ledge. I quickly was able to pull myself up and over. As I climbed down the other side my team was in disbelief asking how I did that. I told them just run, jump, pull. Unfortunately no one else wanted to attempt the wall solo. We were able to use teamwork to get the rest of the team over the wall.

Soon after the wall my comfort quickly started to fade. In the mud pits that followed I ended up loosing not just my loose foot sole, but also the one that was on my good shoe. I quickly found myself sole less. The water, rocks and mud that quickly got into my shoes caused great discomfort. I was basically in slippers with still the majority of the race to do. I ended up having to stop several times to pick out rocks and adjust my footwear. The rest of my team was luckier in terms of how their feet ware stood up to the mud. We started to gain some momentum once we got onto the large fields of grass. Here we just steadily walked along. We talked about our anticipation for the next obstacles that we would end up going over. We quickly covered the next few miles that included crawling under barbed wire fences, crawling through electric wires, and walking over a balance beam over water.

By this time I had thrown my shoes to the side of the beaten path and grabbed a pair of running shoes that someone discarded. I put on these shoes (which had soles attached) and felt an instant bolt of energy. I could finally walk and run the way that I wanted to for the first time in the past couple hours. Unfortunately most of the walking and running has been completed. We were in the final couple miles, which just included a few large obstacles that were relatively close together. The next few obstacles included “Just the tip”, Everest, Electroshock Therapy, balls to the wall, and Funky Monkey. The only one of these final few obstacles that gave any sign of difficulty would be "just the tip". This obstacle included shimming along a wall on narrow footing until the footing went away and you were forced to only use only you upper body. I was pleased to be able to get through this part of the course with relative ease while watching hordes of competitors fall in the water below. My drive to try to better myself from anyone else, pushed me through most of the course. When I have a numbered pinned to my body, I need to do my best.

The final obstacles after Just the Tip were a lot of fun and did not take too much strength or concentration. Monkey Bars, running over a half pipe, climbing over a wall with a knotted rope, jumping off an 11 foot wall into water, and running through an electric charged plethora of hanging strings all seemed to blow by.

Dad and I

When we finally crossed the line we were greeted by many photographers and volunteers who all had completion tee shirts, drinks, and a headband I quickly grabbed as much swag as I could and found my team. I could see that everyone was looking very worn down. However there were smiles across the group and everyone was in high sprites. We took some photos and started to get cleaned up. I started in my own shoes and ended up finishing in someone else’s. In my head I felt that there was some symbolism in this.

Tough Mudder was a great experience to have gotten through. Especially as a bonding experience for my dad, sister and I. If someone were going to ask me if I was to do it again, I would probably say yes. If I were going to change anything it would probably be how fast I can do the entire 12 miles. It’s hard to put me into any sort of course that has a finish line and expect me to not want to finish as fast as humanly possible.